J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Wales and the Marches 1792-4 > Drawings and Watercolours Connected with ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Rocky Shore, with Men Attempting to Rescue a Storm-Tossed Boat 1792-3

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Rocky Shore, with Men Attempting to Rescue a Storm-Tossed Boat’ 1792-3
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
A Rocky Shore, with Men Attempting to Rescue a Storm-Tossed Boat 1792–3
D00392
Turner Bequest XXIII R
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 161 x 232 mm
Stamped in black ‘XXIII R’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Like Tate D00391 and D00396 (Turner Bequest XXIII Q, V), the subject matter is inspired by the work of P.J. de Loutherbourg (1740–1812), as Finberg observed;1 though there is an appreciable improvement through this sequence of drawings in technical assurance, especially in the handling of water and sky. This composition appears to be modelled on an oil painting such as that which de Loutherbourg exhibited in 1785, Belle Isle, Windermere, in a Storm (Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria).2
See also the drawing on the verso (D41455)

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

1
MS note, Tate catalogue files.
2
Reproduced in Edward King, Michael Wheeler and Jerry Lovatt, Sublime Inspiration: The Art of Mountains from Turner to Hillary, exhibition catalogue, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal 1997, p.10.

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘A Rocky Shore, with Men Attempting to Rescue a Storm-Tossed Boat 1792–3 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-rocky-shore-with-men-attempting-to-rescue-a-storm-tossed-r1141146, accessed 25 April 2024.